ROMANCE FOR ADVENTURING SOULS

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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Teaser Tuesday

Forged in Fire

The love of a good woman is worth the pleasure of ten.

Maeve held Gin in her arms as he passed out. He looked
like hell. She laid him gently down and pulled Luna away from him. Maeve took
her to a small outcropping of rock, telling her to stay put. If Gin was dying,
Maeve didn't want Luna to see his final moments. Once Luna was settled Maeve
returned to Gin's side. His face was raw, and he'd obviously hit his head pretty
hard. The entire left side of his skull was swollen. She pulled up his shirt,
hanging in tatters over his torso. She grimaced at the mess on his side. He'd been
stabbed by something sharp and jagged. The wound was covered, but his movements
had opened it and it was bleeding freely through the bandages. She peeled back
the towels. It was a through-and-through wound, about three inches long. Under
his arm she saw he'd managed to bring along his pack. She pulled it off his arm
and opened it.

Inside she found some water bottles, and some dried
food. She dug deeper, looking for something to close up the wound. She grinned
when she found a tube of Meyerson Glue at the bottom of the bag. Meyerson
was a staple for swords on deployment. They used it to hold together their
boots, their weapons and whatever else needed mending. She'd even seen them use
it to glue flash grenades to debris, making homemade bombs. It would do in a
pinch to close up the wound.

She opened one of water bottles, grimacing. The water
was already warm inside. The specialty plastics that Dinarans used would keep
it from stagnating, but it might still grow bacteria. With no other option she liberally
doused the wound. She ripped off a strip of Gin's shirt and dabbed it dry. Once
the area was clean enough she squeezed a long line of the thick glue down the
side of the skin. Carefully she pulled the open flap over the wound, pinching
the sides together until the blood flow was next to none. She looked at Luna,
whose eyes had never left them.

"Come on over here and help me roll him over,
baby."

Luna nodded, walking quickly to them. She knelt by Gin's
head, holding it steady as Maeve rolled him over.

The back of the wound was much worse. Whatever had
stabbed him had torn through muscle and tendon, exposing it all. The bleeding
was less, but the wound was much larger. Luna kept her eyes off the blood and
held Gin's head in her lap as Maeve set to work gluing the edges of the big
tear together.

"Will it help, Mama?"

Maeve looked up and smiled at Luna. "It will, baby.
Daddy's hurt pretty bad, but this will help."

Luna stroked Gin's hair, her hand gentle.

"He finally came to get us, didn't he Mama?"
Luna's eyes stayed on Gin's head as his face pressed into her legs.

Maeve nodded, tearing off the rest of his shirt and
using it to bind the whole area. Once the glue set, usually two or three
minutes, she'd be able to move him. "He sure did" She looked at Luna
and zipped up Gin's bag, handing it to the little girl. "We're going to
have to find a place to sleep tonight, Lu. It's going to be cold and we need a
fire."

The little girl pulled the bag over her shoulders, and
she grinned.

"I saw a cave, Mama. Over there." She pointed
to a large group of rocks a few hundred yards to the west.

Maeve rubbed her hand over the little girl's
dirt-smudged cheek. "Good job on sentinel, baby girl." she praised.
Luna grinned proudly. They'd played this game a thousand times. Maeve would
walk and Luna would play scout, her eyes on any potential hiding places. Maeve
had known that someday the game would pay off.

"We have to drag Daddy." Maeve said, sitting
down with her elbows on her knees. "We have to clear the path so we don't
hurt him anymore. Can you move all the big rocks out of the way?"

Luna nodded and Maeve smiled at her.

"Okay, sweetie. You start on clearing the way. I'll
bring Daddy."

Luna got up, placing Gin's head gently on the ground.
She stood staring down at him for a while. She turned and started walking,
stopping now and then to move the larger rocks off the path. Maeve sighed, her
over-tired muscles already aching. She stood with a groan. Gin weighed nearly
two hundred pounds, and he was completely unconscious. She rolled him over gently,
grunting as she untangled his legs. She cursed his mother and father for
producing such an ox as she grabbed him under his arms and started to drag him
toward Luna's cave. She just hoped it wasn't too far.